It’s hard to overstate the impact Alexander
Solzhenitsyn's short novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich had on the
Soviet totalitarian system. Published in 1962, this book was the first account of
Stalin’s forced labor camps to be published inside the Soviet Union. Millions
of Soviet citizens read it. Solzhenitsyn, who had himself served eight years
hard labor for criticizing Stalin, became an overnight sensation. The Soviet
government was so rattled by the public’s reception that two years later the
government banned all works by Solzhenitsyn and proceeded to marginalize and repress
him. In 1974 the government stripped him of his Soviet citizenship and deported him to West Germany.
Over the next three decades no one was more
effective at exposing the moral rot at the core of Soviet
totalitarianism — most powerfully in his masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich takes
the reader through a single day in a labor camp, from reveille to lights out, through
the eyes of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. A stark, powerful portrayal of the
desperation of prisoners trying to survive and maintain their dignity in the
harsh conditions of a Soviet prison camp.
One brief word about the characters in the book. One of
the sympathetic characters in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a fellow prisoner, Alyosha the Baptist.
As the day ends Shukhov and Alyosha are on their bunks having a conversation
about prayer. Shukhov tells the Baptist that prayer doesn't work, and won't
shorten anyone's sentence. Alyoshka explains that getting out of prison isn’t the
point: "You mustn't pray for that. What do you want your freedom for? What
faith you have left will be choked in thorns. Rejoice that you are in prison.
Here you can think of your soul." (p.141.) Shukhov respected Alyosha as
someone who read the gospels regularly, and who was generous with other
prisoners. Shukhov reflects: "Alyoshka was talking the truth. You could
tell by his voice and his eyes he was glad to be in prison."
It seems to me Solzhenitsyn is hinting at the
spiritual transformation he experienced during his own imprisonment, which he details
in more depth in The Gulag Archipelago. In The Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn describes his gratitude for prison since it gave him an opportunity to nourish his own
soul. "I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: Bless you
prison, for having been in my life."
This little book — my Bantam Classics version is 144 pages — is a compelling introduction
to Solzhenitsyn. Buy it from Amazon here.
